


lay my weary head against your bones

by mintbeetles



Series: the apotheosis endings [2]
Category: The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid
Genre: BET YOU DIDN'T EXPECT THAT, F/M, Kinda?, Other, anyways the hyperfixation has controlled me to love this musical again so we're here now, hey look i'm back on my bullshit, they again have the pot farm because i can't let that throwaway line go ok, tw drugs, tw panic attack, tw ptsd, tw weed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-08
Updated: 2020-02-08
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:01:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22616818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mintbeetles/pseuds/mintbeetles
Summary: or, alternatively— the friendly pot farm truck stop.(lyrics credit: Sweetie Little Jean - Cage the Elephant)
Relationships: Paul Matthews & Emma Perkins, Paul Matthews/Emma Perkins
Series: the apotheosis endings [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1626760
Kudos: 18





	lay my weary head against your bones

**Author's Note:**

> Lynda was confused. When she looked up, she saw a man standing in the doorway, a puzzled look in his eyes. The blue in his irises seemed dim and grayed out, and they narrowed out of confusion and skepticism, the look piercing them like a focused beam. He seemed to consider their presence for a moment, as if he wasn't sure if they were really there in front of him. 
> 
> Then, he nodded softly.
> 
> "Katie, babe? There's someone at the door and I don't know who the hell they are," He called back into the house, where the aforementioned Katie came with the same worried look on her face. 

" _Jesus c_ _hrist_ — Lynda, can you keep your eyes on the road for me so I don't crash straight into a ditch? The damn sun is blinding my eyes," Maggie cursed, her eyes squinting intently as to try and focus on the highway ahead of her. The radio was playing a tune Lynda could find no memory of, a pop station switched on more out of background noise to compensate for silence. She looked up, the rough country road blazing ahead in the early morning light.

"Hey sis, you think that you could try to find a gas station somewhere? We're running low and I really don't wanna stop in the middle of the main highway," Maggie asked, her grip tightening on the steering wheel as her lips pursed together. Lynda frowned apologetically, but distracted herself by pulling up her phone and checking.   
  
"There's one about a mile out from where we are. Just keep going straight and it should be on the left," Lynda clarified, her older sister curtly nodding in response, then going silent.

"... I'm sorry about what happened." Upon hearing this, Maggie's eyes widened as if she caught herself mid-scowl and shook her head.

"No no, it's alright Lyn, you didn't do anything wrong." She sighed heavily, taking a moment to glance down at the shoe she was missing on her left foot, along with the gash through her jeans. A reminder. "Life happens, okay? I'm sure it wasn't... I'm sure he wasn't in pain when it happened."

"Yeah, but I just wanted to say—"

"Say _what_ , Lynda? I'm fine, everything is going to be fine, we'll move on and—" her voice was cut short by the sputtering of the car engine, the radio turning off as the car slowly crawled towards its inevitable stop.

"... Well, shit," Maggie muttered. 

"Guess we won't reach that gas station," Lynda added. 

They both unbuckled their seat belts and got out of the car, both hit with the rushing cold air of the winter morning. Shivering, they both took a sweeping look at their surroundings as Maggie looked in the window to confirm the blinking red OUT OF FUEL signal on her dashboard. She groaned, frustrated and pissed off and about ten million other emotions she didn't want or need to feel at this moment. Her younger sister frowned, then her eyes fell on a house off to the right of the highway, a sigh of relief escaping her lips.

"Hey Mag, there's a house right there. Maybe they might have some gas or something—"

"Perfect, let's go talk to them."

"Well, I'm really not so sure—"

"What's the matter?"

"Come look for yourself."

Maggie came around to the other side of the car, where the sisters' eyes fell upon the vast sea of green spreading around the farm house and extending beyond. Lynda walked closer to the plants, and once at the edge of the farm reached down to grab a leaf with her hand, examining it at eye level.

"Holy shit," Maggie exclaimed, "This is a whole damn sea of weed!"

Lynda couldn't help herself. She started laughing, letting the marijuana leaf fall out of her hand as she and her sister laughed at the bizarre sight in front of them. It was good to laugh at something bizarre for once.

"Isn't this all illegal?" Lynda finally asked.

"Lyn, you forgot that we crossed the state border to Colorado about an hour ago."

"... Oh. Right."

Maggie giggled in response, turning to the house to start walking up the path to the front door. Lynda, before following her sister, grabbed several handfuls of weed and stuffed them into her jacket pocket while her sister wasn't looking before following after her. As the front door grew closer, they noticed that the lights were on, and that activity and life could be seen through its tiny front windows.

_(That's a relief, Lynda thought. That means that there's actually people who live here.)_

They both hurried up to the front door, where Maggie knocked a few times and was surprised to find that the door was answered quickly. 

Lynda was confused. When she looked up, she saw a man standing in the doorway, a puzzled look in his eyes, the blue in his irises dim and grayed out, his eyes narrowed out of confusion and skepticism, the look piercing them like a focused beam. He seemed to consider their presence for a moment, as if he wasn't sure if they were really there in front of him. 

Then, he nodded softly.

"Katie, babe? There's someone at the door and I don't know who the hell they are," He called back into the house, where the aforementioned Katie came with the same worried look on her face. When she got there, she had opened her mouth to say some words, but then promptly closed it again. She instead glanced at the missing shoe on Maggie's right foot, and the hole in Lynda's blue stained jacket than seemed to be slowly generating weed out of the pocket that kept falling out. Katie cleared her throat.

"Would you... like to come in for a cup of coffee?" She asked this more out of pity than a request, but the sisters didn't care as long as they came inside from the cold morning.

The warm air greeted them and the smell of breakfast filled their nostrils. They both were grateful for the invitation, but the air of nervousness hung above both of them. It seemed too good to be true. The woman (Katie) who greeted them earlier led them to the living room, as the man followed behind them. Katie walked into the kitchen as the man sat down at the dinner table, still puzzled.

"I thought," he began, "That we were the only ones left out here." Lynda took a seat on the couch, as her sister did the same. They both looked at each other, silent. Then back to the man.

"I'm guessing you don't know who we are," Katie returned from the kitchen, two coffee cups in hand as she walked over and handed them to the sisters. "You know me as Katie. That's my husband, Ben." Maggie waved at both of them.

"I'm Maggie."

"Lynda."

Katie nodded and smiled, then turned to finish breakfast back in the kitchen, leaving them alone with Ben. After a moment of silence, he stood up, and walked to the back of the living room only to crouch down and searched for something in the bureau, then returned with a big tin box and set it down on the coffee table, pulling his chair up closer so that he could dig through its contents and find what he was looking for. He pulled out several newspaper clippings, all holding similar titles such as "TINY ISLAND TOWN IN MICHIGAN GONE IN ONE NIGHT" and "HATCHETFIELD CATASTROPHE SWEEPS THE NEWS" and "HATCHETFIELD, MICHIGAN: WHAT WENT WRONG?". Maggie gasped when she saw them, and Lynda had to set down her coffee cup to take a closer look. They both looked up at Ben, who was still staring at the newspapers. 

"I'm sorry, this just- _shit_ , this just doesn't make any sense," He apologized, reading and rereading bits of the articles as if the words were unreliable and would change on a dime. Maggie just shook her head.

"Guys, breakfast's ready," Katie called from the kitchen, as she walked out with a few plates and set them down at the dinner table. Lynda happily took up the excuse to get up and eat something, but Maggie took a little while longer before she managed to get up and join her younger sister. Ben joined in last. Maggie was still lost in her own head, barely touching her food, and after several minutes of silence asked where the bathroom was and hurried off from the living room. More silence passed as they all quietly ate their breakfast.

"Lynda, uhm— you seem to be leaking over there," Katie pointed out, as Lynda stopped eating to look down at the growing pile of weed on the floor, as well as the trail leading from the front door to the living room. Her face became flushed as she struggled to find an answer, then just smiled wearily back to Katie.

"I'm, uh, I'm so sorry that I— I didn't mean to—" Lynda stuttered, but Katie just smiled.

"No no, you're alright," Ben finally spoke up, who took a moment to finish his coffee before looking back to Lynda. "Where did you say you were from again?"

Lynda froze, both terrified and concerned at the question. She was wondering whether or not her sister was going to come back from the bathroom, but instead she heard absolutely nothing. A phantom chill iced her bones. 

"Michigan," she finally confessed, the couple's eyes widening until they both just turned to stare at each other in disbelief. Maggie still hadn't returned. Katie took a moment before getting up from her seat and around the table to the younger sister, once again looking at her holed jacket splattered with the bright blue stain, remembering Maggie's missing shoe. She knelt down to Lynda's face, and the sister saw Katie's eyes tear up, her bottom lip quivering as she just shook her head.

"I'm so sorry," she said. "I'm so sorry."

Lynda looked at Katie, then at Ben. She nodded. "You understand, then."

Suddenly, everyone perked up due to the loud BANG that came from the bathroom, and Lynda practically stumbled out of her seat running to the back of the house, Katie and Ben following close behind. When she opened the door, she found her sister awkwardly strewn about inside the bathtub, crying and muttering to herself with words Lynda couldn't understand. She quickly moved to pull her sister out of the tub, lifting her over the edge and onto the floor, propping her up against the side. 

"Maggie, Maggie, Mag— Maggie, please, it's not real, you have to come back—"

"FUCK!" Her sister finally screamed, and looked up to find Katie and Ben step into the bathroom, closing the door behind them as they stared onward with concern. 

"I'm sorry, Lynda, I'm so— I can't seem to forget his face. His face— then— then he— and they just, they just tore him apart and I—"

"Shhhh, shhhh," Lynda whispered, taking her sister in an embrace as tears of her own started to prick the corners of her eyes. The couple knelt down beside them, taking a seat on the floor where the sisters embraced. When Maggie looked up again, she noticed that Ben looked familiar. The newspaper clippings showed a picture of a man, short brown hair and blue eyes. He blew up the meteor, stopped the infection. Wasn't he supposed to be dead? But then—

"Paul?" She asked, and Ben nodded.

They all started crying. The couple reached in to join the hug as they all sobbed on the bathroom floor. 

**Author's Note:**

> oh look, an improvement in my writing how bizarre 
> 
> when i have the audacity to delete almost all my works and then not update for another month that is probably deserving of an explanation more to myself then anyone out there reading, but i legit went on a purge and deleted most of my social media in a depressive episode and now we're here. a companion piece, if you will, to the last one i made. took a little bit of inspiration from welcome to nightvale ep. 19 since they do the same thing, and i thought it was a really really cool idea  
> if you've got no idea who starkid and/or what TGWDLM is, then have an interesting angst to fluff story  
> [my NEW tumblr (that's no longer in a clump of toxic communities haha) --> @peppermint-bug]
> 
> feel free to send me your thoughts and critique in the comments!


End file.
